Preface - Visited 2 California parks and added one
coaster to my bucket list. Fly all the way from FLL to
SFO just for one coaster? Yes, when it's an RMC.
I also rode a wooden coaster called Gold Striker. In
2000, Laurie and I had visited SFO going to Six Flags Marine World, and
Paramount's Great America. 16 years later, I was back
to ride The Joker, a new RMC coaster on my list. I basically
retraced my footsteps from that 2000 trip going to the same places.
Here is the bucket list. Click back to return here. Top USA Steel Coaster List

Day 1 - Friday August 26th 2016. Picture 1, I arrived FLL at 5am
and that was the line going through TSA. I had a
Priority boarding pass on American Airlines because I was using miles.
I was able to go through a shorter line. Picture 2,
after getting through security, there is a billboard on the wall.
This is what the other parks need to do in Orlando to draw visitors from other
cities. Picture 3, I'm blasting off from FLL.
I went through DFW with a 3 hour lay over where I ate lunch.
Picture 4, the rental car in SFO, a Kia Soul that averaged 30 mpg.

Picked up the rental car at 5pm and drove north across the Golden Gate
bridge. Traffic was horrible going through San Franciso.
Took me an hour to reach the bridge and cross.
For those who don't know, it is free to travel north across the bridge, but
there is a $7.50 toll when traveling southbound. This
causes a problem with rental cars, as the tolls are cashless and the rental car
company will charge you an extra $20-$30 dollars to process the toll, billing
your credit card directly.
In my case, when I traveled southbound, I ended up going through the Oakland
side down to Santa Clara. Otherwise, there is no way to get
back to San Francisco withough paying a toll. This is similar
to what NY does when crossing a bridge to come into the city.
It's free to leave, but there is a toll when entering. Best
advice, be sure to set Google Maps to Avoid Tolls. There
was more traffic on the CA-37 heading towards Vallejo. At times, this is
two lanes that merge into one, horrible traffic.

After 2 hours of rush hour driving, I finally arrived Vallejo where I passed Six
Flags Discovery Kingdom. It wasn't open at this time.
I checked into the Best Western Discovery Kingdom, which is a couple blocks from the park.
The reason I stayed at this hotel was the free parking so I wouldn't have to pay
$25 at Six Flags. They have a free shuttle that runs to the
park, info on that is shown in picture 6. They use wrist bands
for the breakfast and free shuttle rides.
Best Western Discovery Kingdom

Pictures of my queen suite room. I stayed here one night.

Day 2 - Saturday August 27th - Here I am at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
early in the morning. I took the shuttle from the Best Western which
left at 10am and dropped off. In picture 3, a long line
formed getting through security with only 1 lane open. As the
opening time approached, they opened more, but this long line sucked.
Pictures 4 and 5, The Joker, the entire reason for this trip. It was
running as they had an ERT event for Comcast employees. In the 6th
picture, is the line of people waiting to run to The Joker. When the
park opened at 10:30am, everyone ran which is called the Running Of The Bulls.

Finally, after spending an entire day flying across the country, waiting 30
minutes to get into the park, I was there. For
this ride you can't pick your seat. The guard at the top of the
platform puts you in a row. Mine was in the back, and the guard said
this was the best seat. He was right, the ride was great.
This is the 55mph family RMC version, but it packs a punch with 2 hanging
inversions and many air time hills. For my next ride, I
ended up in the front seat when I was first in line for the next train.
The ride in the front is fun to see the track, but the back is the best because
you get whipped over the hills. 53mph, 100 feet high, 3200
feet length. Mission Accomplished, I got two
rides. The Joker

Up next, Superman Ultimate Flight. This is a Premier Sky Rocket
II which I classify as a carnival coaster. There's 3 of these
in the USA, this was the first I had been on. Each train
holds 12 people. The ride rockets forwards, backwards, then
forwards shooting the train up to the top, an inline twist, and a non
inverting loop. The ride was ok, but it's still a carnival
coaster and this was not the reason I came to this park. For
example, BGW and Lake Compounce installed these and I won't be visiting those
parks until they put in something better.

Two pictures of Medusa. Laurie and I rode this coaster back
in 2000. On this day they were only running one train
which sucked. This made the wait 30 minutes, and I think SF does
this so people will pay extra for their flash pass system. A
kid and his date made it all the way to the gate of the station, only to be told
they couldn't ride because the kid had a back pack. Seems the guards
at the entrance of the ride and the loading platform didn't notice his back
pack. The wait up to this point had been 30 minutes.
The ride was great just like it was back in 2000, but waiting 30 minutes with
only one train running, and seeing a couple be told they had to buy a locker
really sucked.

A girl looks super bored waiting in line for Dare Devil Chaos.
This is a Larson Looper (not a coaster). Six Flags installed these
in all their parks. In picture 2 is the line, it's only 15
people. The idea this ride will help capacity of the other
rides is a total joke. I didn't go on this and have no desire to
ride it. This is a carnival flat if there ever was one.
The ride rocks back and forth, leaves riders hanging at the top, and finally
loops a few times before ending the torture.
Behind this in the background, is Kong, a Vekoma SLC Inverted.
It was down, which is a good thing, because this is another type of coaster I
will no longer ride.

In contrast to the carnival ride I just talked about, let's look at the
queue line to The Joker mid day at noon. It's a full queue,
the wait is about 45 minutes. The is
the longest wait in the park and proves everyone wants to go on the RMC
coasters.

As I was walking out, I stopped to take a couple pictures of the penguins
interacting with humans. They seemed to enjoy it.
In my opinion, only animals that accept being held captive should be in a zoo or
park. Meaning, animals like lions, tigers, elephants, gators,
chimps, gorillas, and orca whales should not be held in parks because they snap
and kill humans. Of coarse someone could say the same thing
about dogs, but I'm talking in general here.

Another thing to note, is water rides like these that soak the passengers,
I'm no longer interested in. These rides require a lot of
maintenance, offer little thrill, soak the passengers, make the t-shirt wet,
shoes water logged, not fun.

After a great day at SFDK, I walked back to the Best Western, got in the
rental car, and drove to my next stop, La Victoria in Hayward.
To get there, I set the Avoid Tolls option in Google Maps, which took me to the
Oakland side of the bay. It took me longer to go this way, but
I wasn't going to pay $7.50 to cross the golden gate bridge from the north side.
There's no way to pay the toll because it's cashless. The rental car
company will charge $20-$30 to process the $7.50 toll by automatically billing
the credit card.

Above is a veggie burrito with extra everything (beans, rice, salsa, cheese,
guacamole, sour cream, and lettuce). They have
orange and green sauce in bottles. When not in use, the bottles are
stored in cold containers. The chips
and salsa are only 50 cents. All that food for $9.30, what a
deal. This was definately a Man V. Food moment.
I ate all of it, because it was so good, I was stuffed.
In picture 3 you can see the cups of orange sauce for the to-go orders.
The orange
sauce is like spicy Queso, but in a liquid form. It's great on
everything and I put it on every bite.

Here I am at the Best Western Sunnyvale near Santa Clara. Here is my king
room. This was a newer clean hotel with a nice breakfast area.

Here I am at California's Great America. The last time I
visited here was in 2000, 16 years ago. The reason for coming
back was that I had a season pass. Free parking, free
admission, and they have a new woodie called Gold Striker which opened in 2013.

Here I am riding Gold Striker. This coaster is made
by GCI, similar to Gwazi at BGT, Renegade at Valley Fair, or Ghost Rider at
Knotsts Berry Farm. The ride is fast, feels like it's out of
control, many twisting turns.
GoldstrikerI went on Flight deck and Vortex before heading out.
Two parks in one day, plus a food stop.

Day 3 - Sunday August 28th - I stopped by Costco in Santa Clara near the
airport to fill up the rental car with gas. There
was a line at 7am, incredibe. I can't imagine what this place looks
like during the day.

Here I am at Ike's in Santa Clara. I had a sandwich called,
"Sometimes I'm a Vegetarian." All the flavors
blend to make a great taste. Sourdough bread, grilled mushrooms,
marinated artichoke hearts, pesto, provolone, dirty sauce, lettuce, tomato, red
onions, pickles, and jalapenos. You could probably make this
sandwich at home, but it would take you a while.
I also got a sandwich to go called the "Steve Jobs." I took this
sandwich through security at the airport in a gallon zip lock bag and ate it while I was waiting for my
red eye flight home. Food is allowed through security check
points. I even bring a big bag of popcorn on my trips.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/ikes-place-santa-clara-3

After eating half a sub at Ike's, I headed out driving 2 hours through
downtown San Francisco to Ghiradelli Square, following my footsteps from the year
2000. It was interesting to be back here.

I walked from Ghiradelli Square to Fisherman's Wharf. It's
about 5 blocks with many restaurants and shops along the way.
Finally I was at the iconic landmark.

Drove the rental car back to SFO, went through security at 5pm, ate my
sandwich, waited a few hours for my red eye flight on American to push back at
10:23pm. The plane took off at 10:30pm, arrived in Charlotte at 6am EST.
4 and 1/2 hours in the air, plus the 3 hour time change. I had
an exit row seat with extra leg room, but it was still a tough flight sitting in
a chair for 4.5 hours. I got a couple hours of sleep on
and off, was awake most of the flight, the plane finally landed. After a
1 hour lay over in Charlotte, I flew 1.5 hours to Fort Lauderdale landing at
09:45am.

Conclusion: Visited Six Flags Discovery Kingdom checking off The Joker
from my bucket list. So where do I rank this coaster?
It's 7th out of 9 in the RMC category. It's not that any of these
rides suck, it's that others are simply better. Go check out my
bucket list page to see where I rank them, then back to return here.
Top USA Steel Coaster List
What I didn't like about SFDK was forcing everyone to buy lockers for back
packs, and one train operation on Medusa, which seems like they wanted long
lines to make people buy The Flash Pass. That being said, let's rank
all the Six Flags parks like I did with Cedar Fair in the order I feel they
would appear. There are 11 parks in the USA.

How about
California's Great America? Good park, especially since adding Gold
Striker. But the rest of their steel line up is lacking.
They will convert Vortex to a floorless, but the layout really sucks.VortexWhy waste the money on a track
that is only 1920 feet in length, only 91 feet tall, and only goes 40 mph?
This coaster won't make my bucket list. There's really only 2
coasters worth riding as a thrill fan, Gold Striker, and Flight Deck.
Such a waste as this could be a really good park, and I'm sure the market
would support more rides, but the suits won't do it. Once
again, we can look at how I rank the Cedar Fair parks. CGA is
6th on my list because they got Gold Striker.